Broken
by xtnealonx
Summary: 'He is happy to escape and he locks the door behind him and sinks to the floor, breathing in shallow breathes of air, preparing himself for whatever the message will say. (Please be ok, please be ok, I can't lose you).' Shooting Star. 4x18
1. Chapter 1

First story. Reaction Fic to Shooting Star.

* * *

Tina is outside the library when it happens. She is mid replying back to Blaine's message (_Hurry your cute ass up_), when there is the unmistakable sound of a gunshot. She freezes. Everyone in the corridor freezes, collectively holding their breaths and for one very long second time stands still.

**Bang!  
**

Chaos. Sudden terrible chaos. Screams of terror. People running. Dropping books. Dropping bags. A girl falls (_Maria, she's in my homeroom, never spoken to her before_), but she's quickly pushed too her feet again and dragged to an exit by Mr. Martinez. Everyone is rushing past her and all of a sudden she's fighting the crowd, she's going towards where the gunfire was heard because that's where the music room is. That's where everyone is and that's where Blaine is and Artie and Sam and everyone, her family and she's know she has to get to them because oh my god someone has gun and they could all die today. But she never reaches the music room, someone grabs her around the waist and pulls them along with them and she's screaming and she's fighting against them but they are too strong and all of sudden she's outside and the grip around her waist is released. She looks up and sees Lenny, a senior on the football team. She doesn't know him too well but knows he and Mike were acquaintances last year and she gapes wordlessly at him, knowing he was only trying to save her, get her away from the danger (_Oh my god someone has gun. Theycoulddietheycoulddie) _but resenting him so much for it. He just nods, thinking she's thanking him and then he's gone, blending into the crowd of hysterical teenagers.

And now that he's gone she wants him to come back because she needs someone with her right now (even boys called Lenny that she doesn't know that well) because everyone else is in the music room and everyone else is in Chicago and college and drinking coffee and they don't know what's happening. Oh god, they don't know what's happening and Tina grapples for her phone only to realise it's not there. Its lying discarded in the corridor. When she dropped it she doesn't know and now her lifeline is gone. Her way of contacting everyone is gone and she has never felt more helpless.

* * *

Quinn is having a coffee with Linda, one of the girls who lives across the hall from her, when she gets the text. It's from Artie. Which isn't unusual because she keeps in steady contact with all her glee friends (past and present) particularly Artie because the two bonded over the years, especially after her car accident. So she decides not to check the message, (_It is probably about last night's episode of The Walking Dead),_ waiting until Linda finishes her story of yet another idiotic thing her boyfriend has done this week.

'...And then I said,' Dave, you know I HATE mushrooms, why would you order them on the pizza?!' and he was all, 'Ugh I forgot!' I mean seriously! You are so lucky you are single Quinn! Oh speak of the devil, he's ringing me. You don't mind if I...?' Linda finishes off, gesturing at her phone.

'Course not!' Quinn smiles as Linda leaves the room to answer her boyfriend.

She grabs her own phone, and opens Artie's text.

_Just want you to know that I love you guys and I am so happy that I can say you were my friends. _

Her heart drops. She immediately goes to ring Artie, but it rings out and out and out. Oh god, has he done something to himself? She tries to think back on their previous conversations, but she's getting nothing, all they talked about was how Glee was going and how much essays Quinn had to write and how everyone was doing. (They had a particularly interesting conversation about how they would love to be a fly on the wall of Kurt's , Rachel's and Santana's apartment) He seemed fine. He seemed happy. But what if she missed something, what if he wasn't alright and a surge of panic takes over her.

_I love you too, what's wrong?Are you ok?!_

She gets a text from Santana two seconds later.

_Check twitter. Something's happened._

She immediately clicks on to her twitter icon, frightened of what she'll find and when her homepage finally lights up, she breathes in.

**Artie Abrams **ProfesserX

Gunshots heard in school. Love you all.

**Blaine Anderson **BlackbirdWarbler

Someone brought a gun to McKinley. Scared.

**Kitty Wilde** WWQD

Just heard gunshots, I think this is actually happening.

_Oh my God._

* * *

Mike is coming out of a particularly brutal dance class. He is tired, he is hungry and he is sore and all he wants is a shower and food and a decent nap. He's on the way home when he checks his phone and is surprised to see that he has a number of missed calls and texts. The calls are mostly from Santana, Quinn and Matt and even one from Lenny who he hasn't spoken to in months, but there is enough to worry him and he quickly opens his messages.

**Matt: **_Dude, wtf?! Have you heard what's happened? Turn on the news, ring me!_

**Quinn: **_Please ring me or Santana when you see this! _

**Santana: **_Mike, when you get these messages, ring me!Please._

**Santana: **_ANSWER YOUR PHONE_

**Santana: **_Check twitter. Something's happened._

**Artie: **_Just want you to know that I love you guys and I am so happy that I can say you were my friends_

**Lenny:** _hey man, Tina is safe, she's not in the school in case you are freaking out._

By the time Mike reads the last two texts he almost throws up on the pavement. He immediately rings Santana, already running to his apartment, the thoughts in his head rushing and all he is thinking about is Tina and Artie and why, what's happened?

She answers straight away,' Mike there has been a shooting in McKinley. It's still on lockdown and I can't get through to anyone, no one is answering their phones!' She is sobbing down the phone, she's hysterical and Mike can barely make out what she's saying.

He's just outside his building, he's running in the front door and he is trying to soothe her, calm her down but how can he when there is distance and a phone line between them?

'Breathe 'Tana, ok? Breathe. Where are you? Are you with anyone?'

He is running up the stairs, two at a time and he bumps into the cute girl in number 25 but he can't stop to apologise because his friends could be hurt, his friends could be dead. (_Don't think like that. Don't think like that.) _

'I'm, I'm in the apartment, I'm waiting for Berry and Kurt, they are coming back from class, and they should be here by now, oh god!'

He's fumbling with his keys and he drops them once (_Meant to be graceful, the panic is overwhelming) _and then he's turning the lock and he's inside.

'I'm turning on the TV now; stay on the phone with me. Who have you been talking too?'

He flicks through the stations, and there we go.

**Breaking news- Shooting in McKinley High School Ohio.**

The banner is flashing big and red and proud across the screen and there is his high school. There is his high school and shots of people running and screaming and he can recognise some of them. He even thinks he sees Tina at one point and it takes all he can not to break down.

'Quinn and I think she's been talking to Cede's. But no one else will pick up their god dam phones; Brittany hasn't answered her phone Mike. Brittany hasn't texted me back, oh Jesus Mike what if something's happened-'

Mike close his eyes and he can see Brittany right now, terrified and he hopes to god that she got out or that she is not alone or that nothing happens to her because he loves the girl, she's the best dance partner a guy could ask for her and sweet and naive and if anything happens to her Santana would never recover from it.

'Nothing's happened to her ok? She'll be fine, they'll all be fine ok?'

'You promise?'

Her voice is so childlike and so broken and it's the most vulnerable Mike has ever heard Santana, so he promises her even though he can't promise himself.

'I promise.'

He hears noise at the other end of the phone, a distant male voice (_It doesn't sound like Kurt?) _and she cries down the line,' they're here; I'm going to tell them, keep in contact ok? Ring the others. I love you.'

'I love you too.'

And then it's the dial tone and Mike can't handle this, he needs another voice to reassure or to reassure him and he picks up his phone, dials Tina's number and he's getting no reply (_But Lenny said you were safe!) _and he's rang 6 times by now and at this point it is just to hear her voicemail.

'_Hi, you've reached Tina Cohen-Changs voicemail so be a dear and leave message after the beep!'_

**BEEP!**

'Hey Tina, its Mike. I've seen the news. Lenny told me that you were safe. That you aren't in the school so why won't you answer your phone? Please tell me you are ok. I need to hear your voice Tee, I need to know you are ok.'


	2. Chapter 2

They had been arguing over what to have for dinner as they were climbing the stairs. Adam wants a Chinese (_'I've been dying for spring rolls all day!_'), Rachel wants them to try a new recipe she found (_'Oh come on, I burnt pasta that one time!'_) and Kurt is just so hungry he could eat anything at this point (_'Just not burnt carbs, sorry Rach!_').

Rachel is still protesting loudly that one accident in the kitchen shouldn't mark her for life as Kurt is opening the door. Adam and Rachel rush past him, throwing their bags down and their coats up on the cute coat rack Kurt found in thrift shop when they first moved in. He rolls his eyes fondly at them and waits for the explosion he expects from Ms. Lopez for interrupting her soaps. _('Guys, Ricardo was just about to tell Maria he has been sleeping with her mother and that he's really a she who is pregnant with Maria's former husband's baby__!__'_)

It never happens. Instead Kurt sees that Santana is huddled on the couch; phone glued to her ear watching the telly (_The news? Since when does Santana forsake her soaps for the news?) _and when she looks at Kurt he knows something has happened. She's been crying, she still is in fact and she tells whoever she is talking too that she loves them and hangs up the phone, her eyes never leaving Kurt's.

Rachel is already in the kitchen, shoving the recipe she wrote down in Adams face.

'See, it looks yummy! Right Kurt?' she says.

'Santana! Chinese for dinner or a Rachel Berry kitchen disaster experiment?' Adam calls out, flashing a cheeky wink in her direction, already grabbing a menu from the Chinese down the street and patting a disgruntled Rachel on the head.

'Santana?' Kurt asks, dropping his bag and moving beside the distraught girl, 'What's happened?'

Rachel and Adam stop their antics (She had grabbed the menu from him and had started hitting him enthusiastically with it) and their heads swivel towards the pair on the couch.

'Have you checked your phones today?' she chokes out and Kurt's heart stops because he just knows. He just knows something bad, something unthinkable has happened and he's brought back to the wedding which never happened, when Judy Fabray rang Rachel to tell her that Quinn was in a serious accident ('_She's in critical condition, oh my god, she could die!') _and he is grabbing his phone and turning it on and oh.

His phone lights up, missed calls, texts and as he goes through them, Santana tells them, as best as she can, that there has been a shooting in McKinley and she thinks that their friends are stuck in there _(BlaineBlaineBlaineBlaine) _and that she can't get through to Brittany, she can't get through to anyone and she breaks off crying. And Adam is there, and he has been fluttering about and making tea and Kurt has a sudden hateful moment where he wishes that Adam would just leave because he wants Blaine safe, here, instead of Adam goddamit but he swallows that thought as soon it appears ashamed.

After reading Arties text _(When was the last time we talked? Last month? What if that's the last time?) _he gets to Blaine's and he excuses himself to the bathroom so he can read it in privacy. No one hears, Rachel is crying softly down the phone to Quinn (_'It'll be ok right? They'll be ok?') _and Santana is leaving another voicemail to Brittany ('_Where are you? Please pick up your phone') _and Adam is watching the news intently, tea clutched in his hands.

He is happy to escape and he locks the door behind him and sinks to the floor, breathing in shallow breathes of air, preparing himself for whatever the message will say. _(Please be ok, please be ok, can't lose you)._

**Blaine: **I know I messed up our relationship. I was an idiot. You are the best thing to ever happen to me and I love you so much. Never forgot that, no matter what happens.

Kurt just about makes it to the toilet before he throws up.

* * *

Mercedes rings Puck after she talks with Quinn. She's in this park, near where she lives, its quiet, peaceful and she goes there when she feels homesick which, since Puck went back to Lima, is happening more often then she'd like. Puck and her clung to each other when they first moved to LA, they were in a strange city, all alone with just each other and because of it, their friendship grew even stronger than it ever had in Ohio. Puck was one of her boys and she missed him now that he was gone home. She missed him even more right now, she missed everyone even more right now because she didn't know what was going on and she needed someone familiar to tell her it was all going to be ok (_Who would bring a gun to McKinley? Why would anyone bring a gun to McKinley?!)_

'Cedes? What's going on? I've just seen the news and I got that weird ass text from Artie and I can't get through to him or Sam or Tina or anyone. What the hell man…'

She has never been so happy to hear his voice in her life and she says so, wiping her eyes on her jumper.

'Ah, it'll be ok, it'll be ok. I promise right? They are probably fine, all of them yeah? Me and Finn are on our way back to Lima right now, we'll let you know straight away if we hear anything ok?'

'Ok, please, as soon as you know anything. Has Finn been talking to Kurt or Rachel?'

'No, he's driving, but I tried ringing Kurt a while ago, couldn't get through but Santana has told them,' Puck replies gruffly and Mercedes realises he is trying just as hard as she is to hold it together, just for her sake and she is so thankful for it.

'I'm going to call her, Santana, ok? I love you Puck and tell Finn I love him too.'

'We love you too. Call you later.'

And even thought Mercedes is the other side of the country, she doesn't feel so alone.


End file.
